Marist Poll Director: Socialism 'Good Political Football' for '20

A pollster predicted in a new interview the term socialism will help define candidates for president in the 2020 election, making it “good political football.”

Lee Miringoff, the director of the popular Marist Poll, spoke with Hill.TV about the extreme left-leaning political philosophy — which includes Sen. and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

“When you start talking about things like life insurance, 401Ks, anything of that sort, well those are going to be capitalist because they’re in the private sector,” Miringoff said.

“But some of these things that the Democrats are proposing now, the Green New Deal . . . they’re sort of new, and people are sort of thinking well, that might be progressive/socialist. I think it’s going to become good political football during the campaigns because you can sort of use the tags to mean stuff.”

Joining Sanders as a socialist is Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a 29-year-old who took office in January. She introduced the Green New Deal this month, an expensive plan that aims to curb the use of fossil fuels for energy over the next decade.